Materials
Choosing the Wood
Now that you have decided which style of wood shutters will complement your home, it's time to choose the material, or type of wood for your shutters. Picking a wood type does not need to be bewildering. Let’s break it down and then find out if you are painting or staining your wood shutters.
Pine (Knotty or Clear)
Wood Shutters Direct uses soft woods like Pine and Cedar primarily due to their outstanding weathering properties. We generally use Radiata Pine (Monterey Pine) for our Closed Louver shutters and Eastern White for our Open Louver shutters. Radiata Pine is used for a wide variety of structural architectural, and manufacturing needs such as windows, doors, mouldings, furniture, timbers, decking and fencing, to name a few. In addition, Radiata Pine can be used in many applications where it is exposed to the weather or water.
Cedar (Knotty or Clear)
Though Pine is a fantastic wood to use for shutters, Cedar is better. Cedar is a more robust wood that ultimately will last longer than Pine. We primarily use Western Red for our all our shutter styles (love that smell!) because the soft red-brown timber is valued for its resistance to decay, and is extensively used for outdoor construction in the form of posts, decking, shingles, siding, and so forth.
Painted or Stained Shutters
Our general recommendation is to go with clear pine or clear cedar. Knots will show through the paint and will obviously be visible with staining. Whether or not this bothers you is entirely subjective and a personal preference.
If you are trying to match the color on another surface on your house, find an inconspicuous spot on the piece you wish to match, scrape off a little bit of paint and see if it is a dark or light wood. Even with our white primer and a good paint, cedar is quite a bit darker than pine. The dark cedar may not perfectly match the same paint on a light wood. If the material on the other surface is light, go with pine, if the surface is dark, go with cedar.
***A Note on Priming***
We use a latex primer on all of our shutters. In the past, oil based primers were considered superior to latex. Nowadays, aside from the fact that oil based primers are easier to apply and clean up, there is no inherent difference in protection or adherence properties between oil and latex. As an eco-friendly company, we prefer latex as it is significantly less harmful to the environment.
Additional Woods
You will have noticed that these are all soft-woods. We are happy to do special orders with other woods, including hardwood, but these take longer as we do not keep a full hard wood inventory stock. Call us and we will be happy to assist you with pricing and availability information for other wood types such as Cypress, Oak, Redwood etc...
OK, now that we picked our style and we have chosen our material, it's time to take the measurements. Download our handy measurement guides and then return to our quote and order page.
Next: Download Measurement Guide ( PDF, 18KB)
and, if applicable
Download Open Louver Measurement Guide
Already have your measurements?
Next: Quote and Order Engine
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